¹Mordecai knew all that had been done; and Mordecai tore his garments, put on sackcloth and ashes, went out into the middle of the city, and cried out a loud and bitter cry.

²He came as far as in front of the gate of the king, for there was no going in to the gate of the king in clothing of sackcloth.

³And in every single province, wherever the word of the king and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lament; sackcloth and ashes were spread out for many.

⁴And Esther's maids and her officials came and told her, and the queen writhed in anxiety greatly, and she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and to remove his sackcloth off him; but he did not accept them.

⁵And Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king's officials, whom he had stationed before her, and commanded him concerning Mordecai, to learn what this was, and what it was about.

⁶And Hathach went out to Mordecai, to the broad open place of the city that lay in front of the king's gate.

⁷And Mordecai told him everything that had befallen him, and the exact sum of the silver that Haman had promised to weigh out into the king's treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them.

⁸And the copy of the roll of the decree which was set in Susa to wipe them, he set to him, to show Esther and to tell it to her, and to command over her to go to the king, to seek favor to him and to search from his face over her people.

⁹And Hathach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai.

¹⁰And Esther said to Hathach, and gave him a charge for Mordecai:

¹¹All the slaves of the king and the people of the provinces of the king know, which any man and woman which will go to the king, to the inner court, which is not called — one is his decree, to put to death — alone from which the king will extend to him the sceptre of the gold, he lives; and I, I am not called to go to the king these thirty days.

¹²And they told Mordecai the words of Esther.

¹³And Mordecai said to send back word to Esther: Do not imagine, in your living being, that in the king's house you will escape any more than all the Jews.

¹⁴For if you keep utterly silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish; and who knows whether it was for a time like this that you have come to royal power?

¹⁵And Esther said to send back word to Mordecai:

¹⁶Go, gather all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me, and do not eat or drink for three days, night and day. I too, with my maids, will fast in the same way; and so I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.

¹⁷And Mordecai went on and did everything that Esther had commanded him.